Swimming
Mare Nostrum Medals in the Med

MARE NOSTRUM SERIES

More than 50 of Britain’s top swimmers competed at the 2014 Mare Nostrum. This swimming circuit is made up of three meetings held around the Mediterranean – this year in Monaco, Canet and Barcelona.

Over the three stages of the 2014 Mare Nostrum, British swimmers clocked up an impressive collection of medals, including double gold from Lizzie Simmonds and Jazz Carlin.

MONTE CARLO

Monte Carlo (Monaco) gave Simmonds the two top spots, in the 100m and 200m Backstroke, as well as Michael Jamieson silver in the 200m Breaststroke.

Meanwhile Chris Walker-Hebborn finished third in the 100m Backstroke and silver went to Jemma Lowe in the 100m Butterfly before medalling again with bronze in the 200m Butterfly. Also in action was Garioch’s Hannah Miley who won silver in the 400m Medley.

CANET

On to Canet (France), where Jazz Carlin took gold in the 800m Freestyle setting a new meet record in 8:20.68, as well as silver in the 400m Freestyle (4:04.82).

Britain’s Adam Peaty (City of Derby) and Ross Murdoch (University of Sirling) went head-to-head in the 100m Breaststroke producing a very tight finish, with gold for Murdoch (1:00.19) and silver for Peaty just 0.04 seconds behind.

Peaty came back the following day to win gold in the 50m Breaststroke, setting a new British and Mare Nostrum record of 27.19.

Georgia Davies took silver in both the 50m and 100m Backstroke, finishing just 0.02 seconds in the 50m behind winner Etiene Medeiros (Brazil) in 27.98.

In the 50m Freestyle Loughborough’s Fran Halsall finished just outside her season’s best to take bronze (24.76), before finishing joint second in the 50m Butterfly with Adrianna Vanderpool-Wallace (Bahrain) in 26.00.

Other medallists in Canet were Aimee Willmott with gold in the 400m IM, Ben Proud taking bronze in the 50m Butterfly, City of Cardiff’s Tom Hatfield with bronze in the 400m Individual Medley, and Alys Thomas (Swansea University) with 200m Butterfly silver.

BARCELONA

The final stage of the Mare Nostrum Series in Barcelona, Spain, was where Jazz Carlin won gold in the 400m and 1500m Freestyle, swimming the 400m in 4:04.03 to take the Championship record and equal her Welsh record. Siobhan-Marie O’Connor also achieved a Championship record as she won gold in the 200m Individual Medley, with fellow Brit Aimee Willmott (Middlesbrough) coming in third.

Georgia Davies (British Gas NTC Loughborough) stormed to gold in the 50m Backstroke adding to her silver in the 100m Backstroke, while Adam Peaty broke the 100m Breaststroke British record to take gold in the 100m Breaststroke, going on to win silver in the 50m Breaststroke.

Other British medallists in Barcelona were; sprint specialist Francesca Halsall winning the 50m Freestyle and taking silver in the 100m Freestyle, Michael Jamieson who finished in second for silver in the 200m Breaststroke, James Guy with silver in the 200m Freestyle, Lizzie Simmonds with silver in the 200m Backstroke, Aimee Willmott with bronze in the 200m Butterfly, Roberto Pavoni with bronze in the 400m Individual Medley, Chris Walker-Hebborn with bronze in the 100m Backstroke, and finally Perth’s Stephen Milne impressed in the 1500m Freestyle for a bronze.